About Citra
What we do
Citra develops, designs, and builds homes and estates with its own world-leading building technology. We are driven by the desire to deliver homes of remarkable beauty and quality for clients from all walks of life.
Our homes are designed to make their owners proud. When they wake up, when they come home from work, when they welcome visitors, and every day for no other reason.
“Our Mission is to help to eliminate the global homes shortage through technology leadership delivered by the first reliable housing brand.” Citra Mission Statement
Why we do it
A home should be a safe place for children to grow up, a place where parents can trust that their home is the foundation for their children’s future. It should also be a place where families and young professionals can start building wealth, and where retirees can enjoy peace and convenience.
Today, homes of high quality, with attention to detail, sustainability, and durability are often only available to those at the upper end of the market. Citra aims to bring these values to the middle-income and affordable market.
“In the present day, the lowest-paid employee at a car manufacturing plant like Volkswagen can afford the entry-level model produced in that factory. However, in most nations, no construction worker can afford even the most affordable house on the market. Citra intends to change this.
Our objective is to reduce the costs of construction to the point where every one of our staff members, including construction workers and interns, are able to afford a home from Citra.”
Joel Baur, Co-Founder and CEO of Citra
How we do it
The starting point is to reconsider every component of a home, beginning with the walls and roofs. These components provide the primary function of a home: shelter from the weather, privacy, and protection from anything that could cause harm.
Our world-leading and award-winning Citra Building Technology radically rethinks how walls and roofs are constructed. A thermal core provides protection from heat and cold. The thermal core can be made of any thickness or shape required, allowing us to challenge current design conventions that are dictated by linear industrial production processes. The thermal core is then covered with a proprietary plaster that gives our homes the strength to withstand the strongest storms, fire, bullets, and stand the test of time.
But that is not all. The Citra teams tirelessly develop new technologies to push the boundaries of what is possible, making buildings better and more affordable every day.
How we do it
The starting point is to reconsider every component of a home, beginning with the walls and roofs. These components provide the primary function of a home: shelter from the weather, privacy, and protection from anything that could cause harm.
Our world-leading and award-winning Citra Building Technology radically rethinks how walls and roofs are constructed. A thermal core provides protection from heat and cold. The thermal core can be made of any thickness or shape required, allowing us to challenge current design conventions that are dictated by linear industrial production processes.
The thermal core is then covered with a proprietary plaster that gives our homes the strength to withstand the strongest storms, fire, bullets, and stand the test of time.
But that is not all. The Citra teams tirelessly develop new technologies to push the boundaries of what is possible, making buildings better and more affordable every day.
When designing a home, every detail is important. Our in-house architectural and structural engineering teams work closely with our production and construction teams to ensure that no detail is overlooked. Every detail must meet our high standards of quality and design, and it must be able to be built efficiently and consistently by our teams. This close collaboration and design-for-production mindset allows Citra to design and build homes that no other builder can.
Many first-time homeowners purchase homes in the affordable market. These homeowners often lack the time or experience to manage all the details that come with homeownership, such as clogged sewer pipes and rain gutters, broken doors, or future upgrades to kitchens or bathrooms.
Citra’s unique design and technology proposition has resulted in a strong connection between our customers and our brand. As a result, Citra is committed to providing excellent after-sale service and is happy to assist our customers with maintenance and future upgrades to their homes. This commitment makes owning a Citra home a truly premium experience that is unmatched in the building industry.
“A home doesn’t start at its doorstep.”
Anca Szalavicz,
Principle Architect ASA Architects
A strong community is essential for a happy and prosperous life. That is why, in the affordable housing sector, Citra designs not just the homes, but the entire neighborhood.
To accomplish this, Citra develops large-scale projects of at least 1,000 homes. This allows us to design thoughtful and sustainable neighborhoods. Our design philosophy is applied to every scale and question along the way, from the urban scale down to the interface of the homes with the road, the position of the kitchen, the doors, and the light points in the house in order to make the neighborhood safe.
By combining the uniqueness of our homes with the thoughtfulness of our urban design, Citra is able to create affordable neighborhoods of remarkable quality that will develop into prosperous and safe communities.
Citra History
Haiti Earthquake
After a devastating earthquake in Haiti, Andreas Graf, an agricultural engineer and founder of the Anthills Think Tank, began working on concepts for rapid, robust, and economical housing solutions that could be rapidly deployed and scaled in disaster situations.
2010Founding of Citra
Co-founders Benno Büeler and Joel Baur were inspired by Andreas to establish Citra. After global market research, South Africa was chosen as the first target market. The main deciding factors were the size of the South African market, the robust and diverse economy, and its role as an entry point to other African developing countries. Together, the three co-founders traveled to South Africa on several occasions to meet with stakeholders from the public and private sectors to learn as much as possible about the market and its needs.
2015Ambassador's Cottage
Joel and his wife packed their bags in Switzerland and moved to South Africa to start Citra in South Africa. We were able to complete the first seed funding round and to build the first show house, the Ambassador’s Cottage, in Pretoria in the garden of the Swiss Ambassador, Helene Budliger Artieda.
2016House Mahika
Our first client signed a contract and Citra began working on House Mahika on the Whale Coast close to Cape Town, South Africa.
2017CentralBlue
Our first property with over 40 ha of land was acquired in Cape Town as the next important step in our vertical integration. This property later became our flagship project CentralBlue.
2018Certification of the advanced Citra Building Technology
The Citra Building Technology got officially certified by Agrément South Africa. The construction of our first show house in CentralBlue started.
201926 eHomes at CentralBlue
The construction of our first 26 eHomes in CentralBlue started just in the same month as the first Covid 19 lockdown was enforced in South Africa. Despite this setback we successfully completed and sold all 26 eHomes to happy customers.
2020ePod Dragonstone
After finishing the first 26 eHomes, the construction of the first ePod began. The construction of Emerald Place 1 with 34 homes was completed. The Citra land bank grew to over 70 hectares for up to 3,000 homes.
2021Hazendal 5 Star Hotel
The total sales at CentralBlue reached over 200 units and construction was accelerated to deliver all homes as soon as possible. The construction of the iconic three dimensionally curved arches of the five-star Hazendal Hotel was completed. Citra passes to the next round of the C40 competition for two sites in Cape Town. The Citra team grows to over 40 full time employees. The Citra land bank grows to over 100 hectares for up to 4,000 homes.
2022Awards & International Expansion
Citra completed over 100 units and has over 800 in planning. Citra won a number of awards including Best Building Technology in Southern Africa, a Platinum Houzee award for the eHome design, and the AUHF award for the best Property Technology in Africa. The Citra team grew to over 70 full time employees. We started the project planning for a number of projects in the US, Switzerland and Namibia and got enquiries to build worth USD 500m in 2023 and early 2024.
2023Citra Newsletter
